The Society of Automotive Historians

The AC company is today known as one of the oldest independent motor car manufacturers – although it has had…

Brough Superior motorcycles, sidecars, and motor cars were made by George Brough in his Brough Superior works on Haydn Road…

The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 in Hunslet in south Leeds and manufactured steam locomotives for over 100…

The paddock at the August VSCC Prescott hill climb is often blessed with the sight of a row of Edwardian…

The story of the Chandler Motor Company is one of remarkable success. In the 17 years of production from 1913…

This rather complex name reveals something of the origins of the chassis and body of this handsome drophead. The Essex…

It may seem remarkable to find an advertisement for this DKW saloon in an American sports car magazine, but the…

In the early years of the 20th century there was a fashion for simpler forms of transmission for motor cars…

Despite the rapid development of the motor car before and during World War I, a journey of just over 200…

The most striking characteristic of a prewar Hotchkiss is how ordinary it appears. Nothing could be further from the truth….

The Lancia D50 was designed in 1953/54 by Vittorio Jano for Scuderia Lancia to compete in the 1954 and 1955…

The history of Daimler in Britain effectively started with a visit by a young Englishman, Frederick Simms, to the Bremen…

Between 26 November and 17 December 1921 the French War Ministry conducted trials at Satory, southwest of Paris, to select…

Even the finest of sports cars were pressed into military service during World War II. This 1933 Aston Martin long-wheelbase…

The precarious location of this racing car is down to its honoured display at the National Museum of Scotland in…

The British journalist writing in Motor made much of the advantages in terms of smoothness of power delivery of the…

At first glance this small car is just like so many others seen after World War I, often with many…

The decade before World War II can rightly be described as a ‘Golden Age’ for motor car advertising. This week’s…

There is a remarkable story attached to this beautiful Matchless. Max Smeed runs a motorcycle restoration business in Stockport. When…

This solid and seemingly unremarkable tractor was the creation of two brilliant and fascinating engineers. Ugo Pavesi was born in…

This is quite a rare car – but all things are relative. It is rare for a mass-produced car from…

Identifying racing cars, their drivers and the race in which they ran is fraught with pitfalls – not the least…

The West-Aster company of Coventry was advertising two types of vehicle in 1907. The delivery van in this week’s Snapshot…

Much has been written about Crossley cars, but the company’s many commercial and military vehicles are perhaps less fully covered…

The BSA (or, according to the company’s own advertisements in 1933, the B.S.A.) has appeared in Snapshots before, in numbers…

The Mathis company can trace its origins to the car dealership set up by Émile Mathis (1880–1956) in his birthplace…

This is the Buick 60 Special, one of two built by Buick in 1910. It is one of the first…

Our Snapshot this week shows Frazer Sloan competing in early December 2023 at the VSCC Driving Tests at Bicester Heritage…

The BMW 328 is surely the most exciting and sought-after BMW of the pre-war era – but the more sober…

Photographed at the 2023 Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham, this 1954 Kaiser Darrin is number 105 of…

On 10 July 1909, the fastest pace ever shown in a road race won by an American car up to…

The Invicta company was founded in 1925 by Noel Campbell Macklin. His original aim was to build a car with…

The story of the various iterations of Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird land speed record cars has been told in part before…

  On 7 October 2023 a stop was made at a café, during the journey to the Peter Collins Museum…

The steam wagon in this Snapshot is difficult to date but, despite being run by J.E. Gurney of Hitchin in…

The post-WWI Crossleys were highly prized machines among drivers and motoring journalists. At the launch of this 15.7 h.p. Six…

Nowadays, Zbrojovka Brno, s.r.o is a maker of small arms in Brno in the Czech Republic. In this respect it…

The origins of the car in our Snapshot date to 1946 with a lightweight saloon designed by the engineer Jean…

It is rare to find as clear an image of the underpinnings of an early motor car as we can…

The “Orwell” name of this battery-powered tower wagon, designed for the maintenance of the overhead wires of electric tramways, may…

The successful Model A Ford came to the end of its life at the end of 1931. Ford replaced it…

The rather long name for this car was a clear reference to the successful saloon car first seen in public…

This monstrous Dufaux with eight cylinders in line had a capacity of 12,760cc and a claimed output of 80bhp at…

The story behind the British Salmson marque dates to 1890, when Émile Salmson (1858-1917) set up a workshop in Paris…

Cesare Isotta and Vincenzo Fraschini of Milan started importing Mors and Renault cars and Aster engines into Italy in 1899,…

This delightful example of an Austin 7 saloon is proof that considerable driving pleasure is available for a moderate outlay….

A delightful phrase appears on the first line of the Wikipedia entry for the Lancia Delta: “The Lancia Delta is…

The USA is perhaps rarely associated with cyclecar manufacture, but there were many built there in the heyday of such…

This advertisement was one of several issued by Spyker in 1921 to celebrate a reliability trial. Very little detail is…

The story of this elegant ‘gentleman’s carriage’ dates to the origins of the Armstrong Siddeley company in 1919. Its first…

Minor American makes such as Kaiser-Frazer, up against the might of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, had to make a…

In the early 1900s many American mechanics were striving to create reliable motor cars. One such was Harry Eugene Wilcox,…

An article in the French automobile magazine Omnia in October 1922 discussed the advantages and limitations of the electric car….

In 1930 only 1,880 cars were imported into Britain from the three main manufacturing companies in mainland Europe, namely Germany,…

The 1952 New York International Motor Sports Show was the ideal venue for the launch of this concept car by…

This group of (moderately) happy motorists were snapped in Central Park, New York. The left-hand drive suggests that this Haynes-Apperson…

This Snapshot was taken at the 1937 London Motor Show, but by the Stuttgart-based German weekly motoring magazine Neue Kraftfahrer…

We start this week’s Snapshot with a small recap: Snapshot 358 showed a tracked 1908 Hornsby 20HP Heavy Oil Tractor,…

This one-off concept car was produced by Abarth in collaboration with Alfa Romeo and was designed by Giovanni Savonuzzi of…

The Automotor Journal for 26 March 1904 contained this photograph of the Bellamy racing car, with a caption, full of…

The National Motor Vehicle Company was a manufacturer based in Indianapolis from 1900 to 1924. There is a strong connection…

As their name indicates, the Aero company’s main business was the production and repair of aircraft from their factory in…

In December 1945 a picture appeared in The Sphere accompanied by a short caption announcing the imminent launch of a…

The Siddeley 18 h.p. has appeared on this website before, in Snapshot 14. The link between that Snapshot and this…

Guy Motors were registered on Saturday 30 May 1914 by Sydney S. Guy (1885-1971), on the same day that he…

The Humber Pullman four-door limousine was first introduced in 1930. It was the successor to the Humber 20/65 hp and…

In 1953, GM executives accepted a suggestion by Myron Scott, then the assistant director of the Public Relations department, to…

This car, “An elegant little 15-h.p. Straker-Squire Cabriolet-Coupe”, had just been delivered to Mr. Alfred Bennett of Old Broad Street….

The Calthorpe company made light cars that were far better than the norm. Their origins lay in the manufacture of…

The 24th Monte Carlo Concours d’Élégance on 24 March 1932 produced two category winners – both Lancia Dilambda models and…

This would be a barn find if it were not for the knowledge that the owner stores his cars here….

There would be sparse information on the Fafnir car were it not for an article in a 1913 issue of…

The brothers Thomas and Joseph Hampson built an experimental car in Bolton in 1899. Three years later they set up…

This smart “Convertible Victoria” may seem to be a desirable small car – but the model was destined to be…

Introduced on 30 April 1946 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in New York, the 1947 Studebaker was…

Gustave Adolphe Clément (1855-1928) was an entrepreneur who in 1876 started building bicycles and went on to race and manufacture…

The Napier before World War I was very much an Edwardian motor car, with separate cylinders and the awkward look…

The 25th Monaco Concours d’Élégance was held on 5 April 1933. The judges assembled outside the newly built Sporting d’Hiver…

On 22 June 1956 Renault presented their new turbine car, the Étoile Filante (Shooting Star) at the Montlhéry track. They…

This is not the Bedford of Vauxhall commercial vehicle fame – but, curiously, it is a motor car made by…

The research for this week’s Snapshot produced a famous (or infamous) owner, and one of America’s finest motoring illustrators. Noma…

The Dawn was the last design of the old Wolverhampton-based Sunbeam concern. Subsequent cars were all Rootes designs. Sunbeam’s road…

Alfa Romeo applied the 6C name to many of its touring, racing and sports cars between 1925 and 1954. The…

The history of James & Browne started in 1896 with the formation of a partnership between John Melville James and…

This photograph from 1949 is not of the highest quality but is, we hope you will agree, worth showing for…

Yes, it really is a 1932 car – and those wings, reminiscent of a 1936 Cord, are not a later…

The post-war Renault 4CV, Dauphine and R4 saw considerable success, as France returned to prosperity after the war and demand…

The Moyea car may only have been built between 1903 and 1904 but the history of Moyea and its successors…

Recent years have seen the decline of Lancia as a European brand – but this was not always so. This…

We do not know the exact specification of the Crossleys in this Snapshot –but since they were being used for…

The Dodge Lancer name was used by the Chrysler Corporation three times: during the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s. The first…

The Hillman Minx was introduced in 1932 as the first small Hillman since the early 1920s. The car was announced…

Way back in Snapshot 74 appeared the 1903 Chainless car built in Paris. Its main interest lay in the source…

The TVR Griffith was produced from 1990 to 2002. There were several versions, starting in 1990 with the 4-litre powered…

The Alvis 12/50 is rightly considered to be one of the great vintage cars – but less is discussed about…

This is a unique car. Very few Triumphs were bodied with the streamlined ‘Flow-Free’ coachwork introduced in 1935, apparently because…

There were four Columbia car manufacturers, all of them in the United States, but this one, built in Hartford, Connecticut,…

HRG Engineering Company was founded in 1936 in Tolworth, Surrey by Major Edward Halford, Guy Robins (formerly of Trojan) and…

An advertisement for a modest car can always be enhanced by the addition of stylish people such as the elegant…

This remarkable landaulet coachwork on the Fiat 1900 was a trademark design of Carrozzeria Savio. The Savio landaulet was first…

Reading the history of the British Daimler Company, the very last thing that would be expected would be the construction…

Once in a while a motor vehicle appears that is so outrageous that it makes history. This is one of…

It is difficult to date this Cadillac, captured helping to shear sheep in New Zealand. The image is from 1908,…

The Pontiac Straight 8 was a car for its time. Still reeling from the depression that followed the 1929 Wall…

As electric traction takes over modern motoring it is sobering to think that this form of propulsion for road vehicles…

The origins of the Lancia Lambda, widely considered as Vincenzo Lancia’s greatest masterpiece, date back to December 1918, when a…

These two men have just made the journey from Chicago to St. Paul on a ‘Tour’ in 1905. Their car,…

This well-used tractor plays an important part in the history of one of the world’s biggest tractor manufacturers: Massey Ferguson….

The Angus family had been coachbuilders in Newcastle upon Tyne since the late 18th Century. Sanderson was apprenticed to the…

On 21 July 1904, on the beach at the Ostende Automobile Week, the French driver Louis Rigolly set a world…

This Simca 5 is of uncertain age – because these tiny cars were built between 1936 and 1949, right through…

The Brough Superior is rightly famous for its superb V-twin motorcycles – but far less well known were its four…

Snapshot 359, the Pierce Silver Arrow, was from a series in a 1930s British magazine of stars with their cars….

Why would someone be doing this to a Swift chassis? Clearly the passenger is having fun – but that, of…

County Commercial Cars Limited of Fleet in Hampshire were known for their conversion of Ford lorries. They were also the…

On 23 December 1906 R.R. Owen and a party of three left New York on a ‘pathfinding’ trip to Ormond-Daytona…

The Renault Dauphine has always been an attractive small family car, but the Gordini version is far cooler. The Dauphine…

In October 1936 a new car came to Britain and was displayed at that year’s Olympia Show on the Auto…

The Motor Cyclist Review seems to be a rare magazine. It proudly announced itself on its editorial page as “The…

In the Biela valley near Dresden a successful trial was underway in 1903 with the Schiemann system. It was claimed…

At the Turin Motor Show in 1955, Pininfarina presented the Lancia Florida, a concept for an elegant and luxurious saloon….

This Snapshot was kindly sent to us by SAHB member Bob Cartwright. We have no proof, but we think that…

The Grand Prix de France was held on 23 July 1911 at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans….

1933 was a turning point for the American car industry. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had left the world’s…

Richard Hornsby & Sons manufactured engines and machinery in Grantham, Lincolnshire from 1828 until 1918. The company grew into a…

According to The Autocar for 6 November 1936 this was the first car produced by the Toyoda company. Later research…

In February 1920 at least two important commercial trade journals announced the introduction of a new omnibus for the Liverpool…

Why did Humber choose the name Snipe (and then Super Snipe) for its luxury cars? The reason has eluded us;…

Our Snapshot shows the inspection by Lord Roberts of the Motor Volunteer Corps during the annual autumn manoeuvres on the…

This machine, seen in Cheshire on the site of a logging business, may well not be in working order –…

This colourised photograph was taken on 17 February 1923 at Sens, 125km southeast of Paris, during the 1923 Paris-Nice race…

This is how an Africa Twin should be used. Its English owner has just ridden back home for Christmas. Total…

This Snapshot of the new Standard Vanguard was at its first motor show – but it was not in Britain….

Maserati introduced their A6GCS in 1953 as a two-litre, twin-cam, open sports-racing car. The car in our Snapshot was the…

Motoring journals from the early days of motoring do not always tell us the name of the driver of a…

Surely some mistake? Praga were a Czech car and truck manufacturer before World War II. They don’t make racing cars…

This English photograph of an American Moon shows that there was some effort to export to the UK, the sole…

In 1951 Mercedes-Benz introduced their W186 Model 300. This four-door luxury saloon, the company’s flagship model, was built in three…

The Barcelona-based Elizalde company produced their 8-cylinder 20/30 HP car between 1924 and 1927. The features most remarked upon in…

The post-war Riley feels as if it has deserved a Snapshot for many years – but it also deserved a…

This vehicle is curious enough to have attracted some attention in British and German periodicals in 1910. It was a…

The Fiat 1100 (Model 103) was a small family car produced from 1953 to 1969 as the all-new monocoque replacement…

A search for the first pioneer women motorcyclists yields very little before 1916, when Adeline (1884–1959) and Augusta Van Buren…

The British-built Ford V8 seen in our recent Snapshot 335 will be familiar to many. This car, however, may not…

The Citroën Traction Avant was made in many forms from 1934 to 1957. It was a popular car: around 760,000…

The Butterosi car was extensively publicised in Britain in the early 1920s. The advertising artwork in our Snapshot was created…

The story behind this early motor car comes from a flyer, found tucked into a 13 July 1901 issue of…

The M.C.C. Sporting Trial of 1937 took in this fiendishly challenging hill in the Derbyshire High Peak known as Jenkins…

Of all the many touring and racing Itala cars produced by this distinguished Italian maker, this enormous 80 HP limousine…

Yes, it is a saloon and not a sedan – and it is right-hand drive (although that might have been…

The stylish body of the Arnolt-MG hides a rather less exotic chassis – that of an MG TD. The result…

Nowadays Mack is famous for its trucks – but for 60 years from 1900 the company were proud to produce…

The Volkswagen Karmann Ghia sports car, the Type 14, was marketed from 1955 to 1974 as a 2+2 coupé and…

This very English illustration is of a very American motor car. It was used by the distributors, H.C. Motor Company…

If adding a flat bed to a bubble car was not bizarre enough, this eight-wheeled combination of truck and car…

The N.E.C. was remarkable above all for its unusual layout. Its two-stroke engine with horizontally opposed cylinders was neatly mounted…

The Volvo 120 Amazon may appear to represent the epitome of the conventional mid-sized family car – but this example…

In these days of monocoque car bodies and totally integrated styling from front to rear (and inside), we tend to…

This delightful little car can trace its origins back to the Bianchi company founded by Edoardo Bianchi in 1885 to…

Golfers, dressed in the latest fashions. The gravelled drive and beautifully tended borders of what must be a substantial house….

This photograph was taken at the 1906 French Grand Prix, run on a 64-mile-long triangular course of closed public roads…

In the December 1952 issue of Speed Age this car was described as the “World’s Most Exclusive Automobile.” The builders,…

In 1912 John Bernard Taunton designed his first vehicle – a cyclecar with an 8hp 4-cylinder monobloc engine. Very soon…

From 1905 to 1913 the French motoring magazine L’Auto organised a competition for Voiturettes called La Coupe de l’Auto or…

Chrysler set up a factory off Mortlake Road, Kew in the early 1920s to beat British import restrictions. The factory…

The understandable and important focus upon reducing emissions from road transport is far from new. On 7 March 1907 the…

The 18/80 hp Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 460 (W08 series) was the first production 8-cylinder car from Daimler. Launched at the Paris…

The man sitting in the cockpit of the car in our Snapshot is David Brown. It was his ambition that…

This lovely Riley Lynx is raring to go as soon as the Spring weather allows. It is an example of…

Over the years many designers and engineers have tried to look into the future; to predict the sort of cars…

Some cars feel entirely at home in certain surroundings – and so it is with this Rover P5B on the…

Rarely do middle-market motor manufacturers gain the opportunity to advertise their wares in such sumptuous colour – but this was…

The 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne began life as a showcase for the new Chevrolet 265 cubic-inch V-8 engine. It was shown…

This Snapshot unveils three stories – of a company, a car and a man. In 1907, two brothers – Gaston…

The British company Milnes of Birkenhead was founded by George Frederick Milnes around 1888, initially to manufacture tramcars. In 1901…

The cyclecar boom started around 1912; nearly 40 different makes were exhibited at the Motor Cycle Show of that year….

It is fair to say that the sunroof is especially useful in Italy. Not only is there plenty of sun,…

Thunderbolt was the largest, fastest and most powerful Bean car ever built. This deserves an explanation. Capt George Edward Thomas…

Argyll cars have featured more than once in this website but this picture of twelve new ones together, being washed…

Maurizio Temperino was born in Limone Piemonte in 1888 and when very young was taken to America by his father,…

The Motor, in December 1947, made no bones about it: The post-war Straight Eight Daimler is an entirely new design…

This enchanting image of a French D.F.P. has all the right credentials for a Snapshot: a quietly elegant motor car,…

In the early years of the Le Mans 24 Hours race, the regulations required all cars over 1100cc to have…

This Snapshot continues the story in Snapshot 188 of the different incarnations of the Sizaire name. The history of the…

Many companies have tried over the years to create vehicles, trailers or wagons that can travel on road and rail…

The words written in pencil on the back of this Snapshot give no more than a few facts about this…

The origins of the British Aster car lay in France with Ateliers de Construction Mécanique L’ Aster, established in 1878…

In November 1946 at an airfield in Danbury, Connecticut, Robert Edison Fulton Jr., president of Continental Inc., made the first…

Charles Mildé was born in Paris in 1851 and died there in 1931.  In 1873 he founded Mildé et Fils. …

4th October 1970 and Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes region of ‘upstate’ New York was the venue for the…

Maurice “Maus” Gatsonides was a Dutch rally driver and inventor.  He was born in 1911 in Central Java in the…

The Ariel Square Four stands alongside the Brough Superior and Vincent HRD as one of the most distinguished large British…

This Kearns model started life as a Eureka – a motor car name that was so popular that this example…

With its very Italian styling, this beautiful and rare car may not be instantly recognised as an example of that…

The date is 12 July 1913; the location just outside Amiens in Picardy.  The car is Kenelm Lee Guinness’s Sunbeam. …

This curious inversion of marque and model was a deliberate attempt to bring cachet to the top-of-the-range car from American…

The 1907 advertisement for Passe-Partout contained this image of stylish ladies with their car.  They were quoted as saying: ‘For…

The Sunbeam-Talbot Ten was billed as a compact executive car or small sports saloon.  It was built by the Rootes…

The Albert was a high-quality and relatively expensive light car built by Adam, Grimaldi & Company, makers of aircraft parts. …

Fourteen companies decided to name their cars Standard; this example is from the best-known of them.  The Standard Motor Co….

The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD), developed and produced all-wheel drive vehicles.  Otto Zachow and William Besserdich founded the…

This picture of ZIS-101 cars on the Moscow production line of Завод Имени Сталина (Zavod Imjeni Stalina – Plant named…

The article on electric cars in the 1904 book The Complete Motorist by A. B. Filson Young first stated that…

This advertisement was found in a 1950 Argentinian sporting weekly.  It celebrates the success on Vincent HRD motorcycles of two…

This fine motor car is in Britain, far from its country of manufacture – but that was not the USA,…

We chose this week’s Snapshot for the remarkable imagery of the advertisement, rather different from the more conventional publicity illustrations…

This distinguished Belgian make first appeared on our website five years ago in Snapshot 12, written by Malcolm Jeal and…

This picture was taken at a hillclimb during 1921 – perhaps a reader can identify the venue.  The car was…

This experimental car was designed and built under the personal supervision of Bill Mitchell, Vice-President-in-Charge of General Motors Styling, to…

The Lepape, described in a 1934 magazine as “one of the first front-wheel-drive cars”, dates from the end of 1894….

This picture appeared in the British society press in May 1928 because Excelsior, long respected for the quality of their…

This most English of names disguised the true German origins of the Beaufort, a make that lasted only five years…

The challenge to be met by France in the early 1920s was to link up two important elements of its…

While we normally try to identify make AND model in Snapshots, this one has evaded our research.  Our excuse is…

Early Italian motor car manufacturers seemed to delight in using initials to abbreviate their full names – and SPA was…

This motor car looks conventional. It is not. In 1904, so advanced in design was the Wilson-Pilcher that an article…

The scene is the car park at Le Mans, probably in 1962. The cars vary from modest to middle-class. Except…

The Salmson company’s distinguished and varied history started in 1890 when Émile Salmson created a workshop in Paris to make…

There are brave and eccentric designers of racing cars, others who create unique solutions for road cars, and some whose…

This fine Belgian car was captioned as ‘A Luxurious Landaulet’. It had just been supplied to a customer in Scotland….

There can be few if any more unlikely prospects for a racing car than the ubiquitous Citroën 2CV or  Deux…

This is, in the words of Nick Georgano, an undistinguished car.  But the history of its creators is far more…

Spotted a few days ago outside a sports car repair shop in south Manchester, this lovely ‘straight but a bit…

In 1953, Motor Sport magazine reported that, as their June issue closed for press “we learn that the new sports…

James Loveridge has sent us this fascinating picture from a promotional postcard printed by the garage of C. J. Frost…

Sized at only 80 x 55mm – was that known as the ‘En-print? – this image truly is a ‘snapshot’….

This fine image appeared in the 1916 edition of Penrose’s Annual, the review of printing and graphic arts, as an…

As an adjective, ‘bizarre’ seems quite inadequate to describe this vehicle, obviously photographed at a sea-side veteran car rally. Its…

Except for one thing, this 1935 Leyland Titan would be a reasonably ordinary double-decker bus, snapped by an enthusiast during…

Photographs of cars taken in the very early days most commonly are ‘set-piece’ images from professional photographers that show the…

This small car is rarer than we might think.  The Wolseley Series II range was launched at the 1935 Motor…

Bradbury motorcycles were manufactured in the firm’s Wellington Works, Oldham, between 1902 and 1925. They were both costly and noted…

The Harley-Davidson is so well known today that perhaps we forget its early history – and its story in Britain….

Here’s a posed photograph that illustrates to perfection a common aspect of motoring in the immediate Pre-Great War era. The…

This mobile searchlight was presented in the Illustrated London News under the headline “Sky-Grids to Locate Air raiders: Britain’s Most…

By way of a Christmas bonus, our Snapshot this week features two cars. Both were in the ownership of a…

This 1948 advertisement may be colourful and confident – but the scooter it promotes was only produced from November 1946…

The talk these days is of electric cars – but they are by no means new.  The Museum of Science…

Your contributor happily admits to having been a teenage veteran car enthusiast. Over 60 years ago, a school chum of…

The National Motor-Car and Cycle Show opened on November 20, 1903 at The Crystal Palace outside London. This miscellany was…

A picture-postcard view of a bleak moorland setting, this being the A66 Penrith to Scotch Corner road; more precisely between…

This snapshot of a smiling group of elegant people aboard a smart Napier car is remarkable for neither the people…

Taken at an event seemingly focused on earlier motoring, the venue can be stated with greater confidence – the sign…

The world of motor manufacture is full of ambitious projects doomed to failure – and some were downright confidence tricks. …

In the absence of two significant clues, it would be a knowledgeable motor historian indeed who was able to identify…

This is one of only 12 surviving examples of 16 built during the post-war renaissance of this famous pre-war marque….

A snapshot from the 1950s – the father of a good friend of your contributor at the wheel of his…

If you wished to keep your house or office clean in the early 20th century you would be unable to…

Your contributor is very much a ‘vintage’ car enthusiast, but of the post-war cars that he has owned, this Volvo…

If anyone had any doubts as to the toughness of the Austrian Alpine Trials, perhaps this Snapshot will correct any…

There’s just so much to enjoy in this snapshot. Firstly, it speaks of the freedom of the roads enjoyed in…

Vitesse is an apt name for this car. It was based on the well-known and much-loved Triumph Herald introduced in…

A summery scene; and a look back to a time when motoring was commonly rather more of a recreation than…

The Toyota Sera is a rare sight in Britain.  Made only for the Japanese market, the Sera (model designation EXY10)…

On 28th June 1914, in the city of Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were…

29th April 1973 saw the first motor race meeting at a remarkable, some say unique, circuit in Lancashire. Unique because…

Long before the term ‘Mondeo Man’ passed into common English parlance, Ford of Britain was making a car that was…

This is indeed a sad snapshot; a discovery in the photograph album of a well-to-do family whose home was in…

This pretty but slightly awkward little roadster sitting beside the Seine in Paris hides a more distinguished story.  It is…

Among the many single-cylinder motorcycles from the period before World War One, FN machines were of a particularly high standard,…

The stylish brochure gives a hint of adventure: the exotic and inscrutable sphinx; the game little car ploughing its way…

During the late 1960s there were several attempts to use gas turbines in motor racing, notably at Indianapolis where sustained…

This beautifully executed colour illustration comes from a perfect example of a company trying to attract a discerning and well-heeled…

This is a snapshot that is truly just that.  In fact it is one of three taken within seconds of…

It is a little difficult to identify from the front the model of Talbot-Lago for this date, but in this…

This is the second of two snapshots (the other being Snapshot 213, the Rollo) from a recent find in Clapham…

Contemporary colour photographs of pre-war cars are relatively rare, so it was pleasant surprise to find this one.  The caption…

It was low tide in Vicarage Gardens, W8, when this sad little craft caught the photographer’s eye. But fame, if…

So often, captions in early motoring magazines give very little away, and under this picture we had no more clues…

This snapshot was discovered very recently in a ‘bygones’ shop in Clapham in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales not seven miles…

This beautiful picture was taken at the time of the car’s launch in 1951 at the Paris Salon.  Not surprisingly,…

Well, more like AD1905, give or take another year. ‘BC’ was the Leicester CBC registration mark: no records survive there….

This German car is so little talked of that we have no idea how to pronounce its name.  The Cito…

Amongst all the exotic and everyday cars at the 1952 Paris Salon appeared this tiny Rosengart: the 4 CV Ariette…

This remarkable machine is a conventional motor car that can easily and rapidly be converted into a motor sleigh for…

This week’s ‘Snapshot’ features a remarkably low-built voiturette as advertised by its makers, a small northern firm, in February of…

This modest family car may at first glance seem unremarkable – but it is in fact a prototype for a…

Steam power for private cars never achieved great prominence, but in the early years of the twentieth century steam-powered buses…

We perhaps forget how stunning the new Jaguar Mark VII must have appeared to the public on its launch in…

Our regular contributor Teresa Stokes has this time sent us pictures of a rare Morris that was owned by Guy…

Sometimes the identification of a car has to be based on a mix of knowledge and guesses, and in this…

Our Snapshot this week displays these two famous marques very close to the beginning of their lives as part of…

This remarkable cutaway illustration was titled “Aeroplane Repair Van.”  The accompanying caption explains that it was produced from blueprints while…

Even Sunbeam, in its 25th anniversary publication “The History and Development of the Sunbeam Car: 1899-1924” could not avoid the…

This picture comes from the May 1945 issue of National Geographic – and depicts a Cushman 30-Series scooter. The caption…

This Snapshot was taken and the story is recounted by motor racing photographer Peter McFadyen.  Please read on… Snapshot 193…

This most British of photographs is full of references to a genteel middle-class post-war world – where ladies were immaculately…

It is 1946 – and the RAF Helicopter School is giving a display.  In this picture, it is showing off…

Our thanks are once again due to Teresa Stokes, who has already provided photographs of the cars of her father…

The location of this colourised picture from 1950 looks very much like Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester – which would not…

This composite picture of an R-C-H car with the premises of its main dealer in the background came as a…

This snapshot is remarkable for the people gathered in front of the racing car.  The photograph was taken at the…

That most English of cars, the little Triumph Mayflower, seems the unlikeliest candidate for a trip to Brazil.  But here…

At first sight this picture is attractive but nothing out of the ordinary.  It depicts an Austin Seven 65, a…

This design for a Sizaire-Berwick advertisement may or may not have been published (it appears in a printing annual as…

This remarkably accomplished prototype was developed in 1955 by W F Buckle, the Australian owner of a car distribution firm…

This Snapshot was found in a magazine article entitled Il secondo “Salone Internazionale della Tecnica” (The second International Technology Exhibition),…

In the background of this week’s Snapshot is a Jowett Jupiter – but the car in the foreground is a…

This advertisement for Sunbeam motor cars comes from the ‘Official Program’ of the Ninth International Sweepstakes of the Indianapolis Motor…

If this car looks to you like an early Benz Viktoria, then you are absolutely correct.  It may have been…

Regular watchers of our Snapshots will have seen our series of photos of the cars of Adrian Stokes: numbers 145,…

Our Snapshot this week is of a French competition car. We have to admit that we had never heard of…

The car in this week’s Snapshot is already very famous – but this advertisement from the 1930 Times of India…

If you have a unique selling point, you need a unique trick to promote it – as it is with…

We are once again very grateful to Guy Loveridge of the SAHB, who has lent us this amazing picture of…

This professional image has a style that matches its subject: a 1949 Talbot-Lago with coachwork by Figoni & Falaschi. It…

This lovely airbrushed illustration is appropriately captioned ‘Reproduced from Snapshot’.  It depicts a 1920 A.E.C. with a charabanc body, sitting…

The Illustrated London News for 16th March 1907 showed some wonderful images from the Commercial Motor Show at Olympia –…

When a lovely little late vintage (or post-vintage?) fabric saloon turns up at a National Trust property, people stop and…

This image, from the front cover of the special Motor Show issue of the Belgian magazine La Revue Sportive Illustrée,…

This is the third and final press photograph sent to us by James and Guy Loveridge for use in our…

The Nordenfelt is a curious make.  Its name is Swedish in origin, Georgano states that it was made in Belgium,…

When you see a rare and interesting car at a classic or vintage motoring event it is a pleasure –…

They say you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear but coachbuilder Maythorn of Biggleswade did when…

This is the second of the three press photographs sent to us by James and Guy Loveridge for use in…

This remarkable scooter would appear modern and stylish today – but in 1920 it must have caused a sensation. The…

This is one of those rare instances where the gentleman in the picture is much more famous than the motor…

James and Guy Loveridge of the SAHB have very kindly lent us three beautifully crisp press photographs for use in…

This Snapshot at first appears to be no more than an effective advertisement for Girling brakes.  Its emphasis on progress…

The steam waggon continued to do sterling work long after the internal-combustion engine had usurped steam in the motor car. …

A new Snapshot, recounted by motor racing photographer Dr Peter McFadyen – with a photograph taken by him. Read on… In…

Here is the fourth and final Snapshot in the series showing the cars owned by Adrian Stokes.  If you want…

This is a very stylish offering from a company more usually (but wrongly) considered simply as makers of solid but…

If there was ever a case of ‘the right man being in the right place at the right time’, it…

The Snapshot here was taken in the mid-1980s – and this looks like a smart example.  It had just received…

We chose this week’s Snapshot because we think it’s such a beautiful illustration of an Austin, from the days when…

The history of car manufacture by Ford Motor Company in Britain is long and distinguished – and it all started…

This delightful photograph was sent to us by Thomas Ulrich of the AHG – our sister society in Germany.  All…

This is the third car owned by Adrian Stokes – after the Raleigh Safety Seven we featured in Snapshot 145…

The Bedford OB coach with Duple body in this week’s Snapshot almost certainly dates from the early post-war period. Bedford…

The Motor Manufacturing Co. had its origins in the Great Horseless Carriage Company, one of the creations of Harry J…

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  Is it a Scarab?  No, it’s a Corvette. The original 1953 Corvette,…

A beautiful summer’s day in August 1938 at the seaside: Poole Park in Dorset.  So much so that the correspondent…

This is the next car owned by Adrian Stokes – after the Raleigh Safety Seven we featured in Snapshot 145. …

This beautifully lithe and sporty motor car is typical of those produced just before the Great War.  Perhaps the most…

This car was a triumph of desperate optimism over realism – but that didn’t stop the publicists vaunting its qualities…

Cecil Kimber joined Morris Motors in March 1921, and almost immediately was asked to manage The Morris Garages and moved…

We are once again indebted to Neil Thorp for this Snapshot.  It comes from a series of pictures in the…

This early image was found in the programme for the Concours Hippique (Show Jumping Event) held in Paris from 26…

This Snapshot nearly didn’t make it – because at first we simply couldn’t identify the car.  The image is a…

This is a professionally printed postcard showing the tunnels at Grande Chartreuse, this being a monastery of the Carthusian order…

Yes, we know, William Morris made his first car in 1913.  But this is definitely a Morris.  The difference is…

This is the second photograph sent to us by Neil Thorp; the first one is in Snapshot 139.  We managed…

Once again, we are grateful to Neil Thorp of the SAHB for this Snapshot.  It shows a racing team of…

Our picture this week was published in 1905 in a British magazine, expressly to illustrate the remarkable side-entrance arrangement on…

It is gratifying to know that the former owner and racer of this Mercedes-Benz ‘Silver Arrow’ racing car is still…

Identifying an early commercial vehicle with no radiator badge can be fraught with difficulty – but this photo from 1909…

In October it was 100 years since the Bolshevik 1917 revolution in Russia that toppled the Menshevik revolutionaries who in…

This snapshot has only just come to light this year, kindly sent in by Neil Thorp of the SAHB.  It…

There are two big advantages when searching for information about a car such as this: there were only 20 made,…

It was in the summer of 1954 that your contributor snapped this Talbot. The location was Blackpool’s ‘prom’, and I…

In Snapshot 130 we saw the very early use of colour (or hand-coloured) photographs to promote motor cars.  But the…

It is always surprising how thoroughly modern a photograph looks in colour.  This image from 1906 could almost be a…

It was 51 years ago – Saturday 17th September 1966 to be precise. Grand Prix Formula 1 cars could still…

Perhaps there are plenty of photos and advertisements in French magazines for this delightfully-named car from the early 1920s –…

The rarity of this 20-24HP Horbick is perhaps not surprising.  The cars were made by Horsfall & Bickham Ltd in…

We discovered this advertisement for a James motorcycle, not in a magazine but in the portfolio of a professional illustrator…

This lovely photo of a Mathis is clearly worthy of an SAHB Snapshot, but we are ashamed to admit that…

 Derek Buckler (1910 – 1964) took after his father who was a highly inventive entrepreneur and, after competing in motorcycle…

We have no idea when this picture was taken, but it seems to be during the period, perhaps after the…

The unconventional appearance of Edwardian Lanchester cars must have counted against them to some extent in period, as even more…

This snapshot of a Bentley, taken at Oulton Park at a Richard Seaman Trophies Meeting in 1971, was initially rather…

The 1917 White “Sixteen Valve 4”, known as the Model GM by the maker, was the last car model made…

  The 80th anniversary of the death of Guglielmo Marconi will be on 20th July next week, so we wanted…

One could be forgiven for believing that this photograph represents an advertisement for house removals, but in fact the image…

This snapshot was taken, almost certainly in London, around the late 1960s or early 1970s.  The Ford Capri Mk 1…

  Were one to try to find a photograph of a typical car from the start of the first post-Great…

  Motor buses (as opposed to trolleybuses) operated by Stockport Corporation came into service in 1919 (these being two AEC…

The 1936 Ford V-8 ‘Brakenvan’, seen here on 14 January 1937 at motor dealer Kevill-Davies & March Ltd. in London, is…

We are taking a big risk with our identification of the car in this Snapshot from just before the Second…

One of our principal Snapshot contributors, John Warburton of Manchester, had no difficulty identifying this 1908 car as a Belsize…

  This photograph truly merits description as a ‘Snapshot’. The interloper distantly getting in on the act these days would…

Reaction to this coloured photograph from 1899 will very much depend upon one’s point of view – from “what fascinating…

Canon Norburn was Vicar of Bolton in the 1950s, when his son was a school class-mate of your contributor. This…

Even Snapshots are expensive to buy – possibly.  This one was found in a vintage shop in Yorkshire, and was…

  A true ‘snapshot’ here: taken on what must have been an early spring day, the lady is fashionably yet…

  This elegant illustration of a 1929 LaSalle Convertible Coupe is curious for several reasons.  Firstly, this American automobile appears…

Post-WWII restrictions on materials – and steel, in particular – hampered home market sales for car manufacturers large – and,…

Our Snapshot this week illustrates a highly popular milestone: on 1st June 1948, motorists could buy petrol again for the…

The photographer, or the gentleman in this photograph, has written his name and the date, 1899, in the lower right-hand…

At first glance, this unusual old sports car has the appearance of a one-off special. Its lines and especially radiator…

This snapshot of Dorothy Patten in a Peugeot 402 Darl’mat ‘Spécial Sport’ on Brighton’s Madeira Drive is a rare one. …

Offered as a supplement to The Motor magazine with the issue dated 7th November 1911, this is a colour print…

For our Snapshots, sometimes it pays to find old publications that have nothing to do with motoring history.  Literally an…

One hundred years ago, motoring for the masses was still a dream for most people. Certainly, cars were more numerous…

The car in this week’s Snapshot is a 1914 Darracq 12-44 Torpedo; so far, so normal.  But our subject is…

It’s the year 1920, and here’s a brilliant motor industry business opportunity. In the UK, post-war inflation and great demand…

The Georges Irat car is commonly recalled as a sporty open two-seater version of the Citroen Light 15 that was…

To modern eyes this French-made Hurtu with 8 h.p. De Dion engine is just cute but we take for granted its modern features ahead…

This photograph, taken at Oulton Park Richard Seaman Trophies meeting in 1971, is clearly of a Bentley – and, from…

Quite late for the genre, this image comes from a 1907 photographic postcard titled, ‘How Many Tunes Does It Play…

Many are the unrecorded father-and-son interviews that would have made for compelling eavesdropping. One such would have been that between…

The purchase of an 1880s carriage brochure for W. & F. Thorn, coachbuilders of Norwich and London (founded in 1824),…

This Sheffield-Simplex looks to be more 1920 than 1907, but on the back of this postcard, the handwritten text explains…

What a difference a caption can make. When this Daimler 45 h.p. registered XB6220 appeared in Brian Smith’s monumental Daimler…

We were initially attracted to this Snapshot simply because of the sheer beauty and quality of the image, which comes…

A single glance at this week’s ‘Snapshot’ is sufficient for the early car enthusiast to say, “American raceabout of the…

Although the pneumatic tyre had been re-invented by John Dunlop, and the benefits of inflated tyring had been demonstrated over…

  Yes – the setting is Brooklands in the 1920s. Yes, that is Malcolm Campbell in characteristic pose. For an…

If we know the name of one of these Maserati saloons, then surely the red car in the foreground and…

This lovely watercolour by P. B. Hickling of a Crossley 19.6 h.p. on tour, in Scotland probably, appeared in a…

This photograph begs the question, one seat or two? The driver’s seat can be glimpsed and so presumably someone could…

  Despite recent decisions to distance ourselves a little more from our cousins on the other side of the English…

  ‘La Perle’ does indeed translate as ‘the pearl’, so is a not-unsuitable name for a make of car, and…

At the dawn of motoring, steam cars were quieter and faster than their smelly and noisy petrol-powered competitors.  But gradually…

Slowly being restored in Norfolk is a sophisticated sports car to intrigue the true enthusiast. Our congratulations to the SAHB…

We know that wartime privations often led owners of motor cars to resort to other sources of fuel when petrol…

Can it be one of those unwelcome signs of old age when the car parks at motor race meetings seem…

Four previous ‘Snapshot’ images have featured early examples of printed colour photographs. An internet search reveals that the chromo-lithographic process…

This period photograph is hardly a ‘snapshot’ at all: it could scarcely have been more carefully posed. In particular, the…

The Stout Scarab was produced during 1932-39 in very limited numbers, nine in fact. Its history is well recorded. William…

This week’s ‘snapshot’ has a holiday theme. For us, the fact that it must date from immediately prior to the…

The small 3-wheeler ‘car’ seen here in 1936 is an Italian Passarin. The mechanism was mounted on a central frame similar to…

At first glance, this Opel Olympia may appear very little out of the ordinary. True, the blackout cover over the…

How does what appears to be a fairground attraction qualify for the attention of followers of the SAHB’s Snapshots? On…

Almost a definition of a ‘snapshot’ is this battered survivor! These days, motorists rarely take a drive out into the…

When the polymer that later became known as Perspex was developed in 1931, by the British scientist Rowland Hill, it wasn’t…

Usually associated with fast sporting cars in the 1920s and 1930s, Lagonda, like so many manufacturers, had their roots in…

This image is truly a snapshot: taken from a small print in a family photo album. But the car in…

For its June 1898 edition the large format French magazine Les Sports Modernes that was printed on superior quality ‘art’…

In the case of cars that sold in respectable numbers, there have always been examples that looked somewhat different from…

Unlike the well-known 1,000-Miles Trial of 1900 that was organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland which…

Whilst readily identifiable as a Morgan three-wheeler, the engine offers something of a surprise as it is not one of…

On the 13th of May, 60 years ago, a young Englishman aged 26, driving a Maserati 250F, won the Monaco…

What makes this 3-litre of more than passing interest is its early date, coming as it does from the first…

The driver of this 12hp Arrol-Johnston is the Duke of Portland who played a notable rôle in the early days…

For the first fifty or so years of the company’s existence, the words ‘Ford’ and ‘Sports car’ would not normally…

Crossley Brothers of Manchester had been making stationary engines using Otto patents under license for over 30 years when they…

As the 19th century progressed, and on into the Twentieth, there was something of a collective view among well-to-do people…

When preparing this photograph for use here it was noticed that there appeared to be something slightly odd about it….

In 1970 a summer holiday was taken in Austria, and to get there once the Channel and Belgium had been…

In its reporting of the 1930 Olympia Show, The Motor commented on the Wolseley Hornet four-seater Saloon: ‘it has won…

The vehicle shown here was known as the Lawson ‘Motor Wheel’, taking its name from the form of its mechanical…

On obtaining a photograph such as this, which clearly shows a team of Peugeot racing cars, the obvious place to…

Some years ago this picture postcard was used in a quiz where the car’s make had to be identified. Answers…

For reasons that are not at all obvious, overview histories on the technical development of motorcars pay little or no…

The postcard on which this image appears has no message written on the back, only a name and address of…

Pictures of motor vehicles where people are present offer a distinct advantage over those where there are none, because persons…

From the very earliest days of motoring, manufacturers and their agents indulged in activities that brought their vehicles to public…

In the 1950s when this motorcar was a current model, its overall appearance rather suggested that it had originated in…

Whilst fairly obviously it is an early motor vehicle that is pictured here, the make is probably not one that…

Those people who are interested in older mechanically powered road vehicles whilst generally having a broad appreciation of the overall…

It is fairly common practice these days for people together with their older motorcars to meet up on New Year’s…

In Britain there is a tradition that associates snow with this time of the year, so who are we to…

As we are approaching the time of year when parties are popular with some, it seemed appropriate to have a…

This really is a ‘snapshot’, grabbed in a moment with a Kodak Box Brownie camera by a lad of 14…

At first glance, even second, it is somewhat difficult to believe from the appearance of this motor car that its…

This 10-12 hp 2-cylinder Argyll was registered early in February 1906 and one cannot help but thinking from the dress…

Given the car’s make and date it is not really any surprise that it is a substantial vehicle even though…

The 200-Mile Race organised by the Junior Car Club that took place at Brooklands in October 1921 was the first…

We see this car probably in King Street, off Regent Street, where the steam car side of the White Sewing…

Mention the name Austin-Healey and most people interested in motoring of the past will form a mental image of attractive…

By this date motorcars regularly appeared on picture postcards and to encourage purchase of them they almost always had people…

  One ventures to suggest that if it was not for the fact that the make of this vehicle is…

The potential for punning badinage to accompany an image such as this is extensive. A comment from a salesman to…

If these days a visit was made to the elaborate premises where racing cars are designed and constructed they would…

The Georgano Encyclopædia gives six different makes of motorcars that bore the name Star but the one that concerns us…

It is assumed that most viewers with an interest in motoring history will recognise this image as that of a…

  From the look on the face of the gentleman propping himself up in front of this steam roller it…

This photograph was bought not because of any particular desire to have a picture of a 1930s Panhard-Levassor but simply…

The Warwickshire countryside and the picturesque villages therein were very popular locations with the Coventry car-makers when they wanted to…

  Whilst the make of this car should not present a recognition problem since it is written large upon it,…

The original reason for selecting this photograph for the delectation and delight of viewers was because in a way it…

Although pictures of this armoured car appeared in The Autocar in November 1914 there is a lack of people in…

When given this slightly fuzzy photo around 55 years ago the assumption was made that it had been taken at…

The absence of a number plate on this car suggests that it is a Vauxhall publicity photograph but it is…

According to reports in both The Engineer and The Autocar in November 1895, which only show this steam-powered machine from…

Although Mitchell automobiles hailed from Racine, Wisconsin, USA, this shot was taken far from their homeland – in ‘Olde England’,…

In July 1905 there took place a 15-day touring car trial between the two cars seen here. This private venture…

Three-wheelers may not be everyone’s cup of tea, particularly when they have the single wheel at the front, but they…

At first glance it might seem that this Belgian Pipe engine is of V-pattern, but in terms of its basic…

A somewhat exotic looking vehicle, particularly for the period in which it was produced when Britain was still enduring the…

It is not only the material that glass-plate negatives are made of that means they have an inevitable fragility, but…

To misquote Mr Spock in the ‘Star Trek’ television series: “It’s an Austin Jim, but not as we know it”….

In its 1914 catalogue Napier drew attention to the fact that if one was going to use a car in…

While there are a number of imponderables regarding this charming photograph, such as precisely where it was taken other than…

An attractive enough mid-twenties two-seater and dickey, looks robust, decent ground clearance, four-wheel brakes, and the lady driver looks pleased…

Of the 65 cars and their occupants that had set off from London for the 1,000-Miles Trial on Monday the…

Trying to come up with an expression to describe this car there was a single word that kept coming to…

In the closing years of the 19th century when motoring began it was the four-wheeled automobiles or motorcars and their…

One of the problems with showing photographs of competition vehicles is that most images of them have been seen time…

Colour images of mechanically propelled vehicles were exceedingly rare before 1900 and they did not become abundant until many years…